At Work: Why Firms Want Staffers With Happy Spouses

An unhappy partner can make the other partner less effective on the job, research suggests.

Todd Pedersen, chief executive of home-automation company Vivint Inc., says there is a connection between the state of his employees’ relationships and their productivity levels. “When my wife’s sad, I am not coming to work with a bounce in my step,” he says.

Vivint and a handful of other companies have been launching special clubs and planning events—part professional development, part party—to acquaint employees’ husbands and wives with the work that consumes their partners’ days. Gatherings give spouses space to vent, and, companies hope, help them understand the next time their partner is stuck late at the office or leaving town on a last-minute business trip.

An unhappy partner can make the other partner less effective on the job, research findings suggest. A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family found that men are happier with their lives when their wives are satisfied with the state of their union, regardless of the husbands’ feelings about the marriage. And a recent study in Psychological Science showed that a spouse’s personality can influence his or her partner’s performance at work.

Employees whose spouses are conscientious types who tend be organized rule-followers were more likely to perform better at work, win promotions and raises and be happy with their jobs, according to the study’s author, Joshua Jackson, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. That effect remained even after the researchers accounted for the workers’ personalities. The paper drew on five years of data from 2,272 couples in Australia.

Videogame maker Riot Games Inc. teaches employees’ partners to play its games during monthly events for significant others. In addition, the company has a private Facebook group for significant others to connect. Members talk about their current struggles and what the company can do to help them, according to Sue-Min Koh, a talent programs manager at Riot Games.

Mr. Pedersen estimates Vivint spends about $100,000 a year on workshops for spouses of sales staff and technicians, which make up 60% of the company’s employees. Last March, the company treated about 400 partners, all women, to a day of motivational speakers, games and prizes at a conference center in Utah near Vivint’s headquarters. Some found cozy blankets under their seats; others chatted about the frustrations that come with having a spouse who works long hours.

On occasion, husbands have dropped in on the gatherings, but the focus of the spouses’ program, called Elevate, is decidedly female; its website is “elevatewife.blogspot.com,” and most of the company’s technicians and sales staff are men. “They really feel like we’re at least trying to listen,” Mr. Pedersen said.

Andrea Taylor, the wife of a sales manager with the company, plans the events. She said the events have made her more supportive of her husband’s schedule, which includes 80-hour workweeks during the summers and frequent travel.

At
DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.,
managers are trying to get spouses talking like employees do. The company, which provides services for patients with kidney disease and manages medical groups, communicates in a “weird language,” according to Dave Hoerman, a vice president who runs DaVita University, which provides training for employees.

The firm recently held a session for employees’ spouses and adult children. One day in August, 38 family members learned about everything from conflict resolution to the “one for all and all for one” slogan that DaVita workers frequently chant. “At the end of the day, they were doing the [chant] back,” Mr. Hoerman said. The firm plans more sessions.

A mere 8% of U.S. workers say they’re satisfied with their pay, but well under half have ever asked for a raise in their current field, a new survey has found.

According to compensation-data firm PayScale, 43% of workers have asked for a raise. Of the workers who haven’t asked for a pay increase, more than a third said their employers raised their pay before they needed to ask. Others indicated they were uncomfortable negotiating salary, or feared being viewed as “pushy” or losing their job.

That could change in 2015—if the labor market continues to strengthen, workers will feel more upbeat about their prospects and more confident that employers will want to keep them.

Forty-four percent of workers who did request raises got what they asked for, while a quarter received no raise at all. The rest got some of what they had lobbied for. PayScale surveyed 31,000 individuals who visited its website in October and November 2014.

Generally, the likelihood of a person successfully negotiating for a salary bump rises as incomes go up, PayScale found. Seventy percent of workers earning more than $150,000 who negotiated a raise got the full amount. Among workers earning $10,000 to $20,000, 25% got what they wanted.

PayScale broke down the responses by job, looking at who’s boldest among around 180 occupations. Many people working in construction trades—including supervisors, heating and air conditioning mechanics, and equipment operators—have asked for raises at some point. Art directors and automotive mechanics topped the list, with 65% requesting increases.

And despite much talk that women are afraid to ask for more money, PayScale found a relatively small gender gap: 44% of men have requested raises, compared with 42% of women. And the breakdown of who received the full amount of the raise, a partial increase, or nothing at all was also roughly equal.

Surprisingly, the largest disparity appeared for professionals with M.B.A.s. While 63% of male business-school graduates who asked for higher pay were granted those raises, only 48% of their female peers were. And 21% of the women got no salary hike at all, versus just 10% of the men.